Tragedy struck in Kalempang village, South Sulawesi province, as residents discovered the lifeless body of 45-year-old Farida inside a massive reticulated python on Friday. The python, measuring around five meters (16 feet) long, had swallowed Farida whole after she went missing the previous night.
According to village head Suardi Rosi, Farida’s husband grew suspicious when she did not return home on Thursday night. His search led to the discovery of her belongings, prompting villagers to initiate a search. Soon after, they spotted the python with a visibly enlarged belly, prompting them to take immediate action.
The villagers decided to carefully open the python’s stomach, revealing Farida’s fully clothed body inside. Such incidents are exceedingly rare but not unprecedented in Indonesia, where several people have tragically lost their lives to similar python attacks in recent years.
In a chillingly similar incident last year in Southeast Sulawesi’s Tinanggea district, villagers encountered an eight-meter python that had fatally strangled and consumed a local farmer. Likewise, in 2018, a 54-year-old woman met a grim fate inside a seven-meter python in Southeast Sulawesi’s Muna town.
Indonesia’s dense tropical forests and extensive palm oil plantations sometimes bring humans into deadly proximity with large pythons, highlighting the precarious coexistence between humans and wildlife in the region.
